Using informatics to improve healthcare quality.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Informatics
• Big Data Analytics
• Quality Improvement Science

Background:

• Healthcare quality improvement initiatives are increasingly leveraging informatics and big data.
• Current returns on healthcare investments in these areas are suboptimal.
• Challenges exist from patient-level to regulatory agency levels.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide insights into contemporary challenges in applying informatics and big data for healthcare quality improvement.
• To explore the spectrum of challenges encountered in healthcare settings.
• To highlight the potential of informatics and big data in enhancing healthcare.

Main Methods:

• This study is a narrative literature review.
• It synthesizes existing research on informatics and big data in healthcare quality improvement.
• The review examines challenges across various healthcare stakeholders.

Main Results:

• Informatics acts as a crucial link between big data and its applications, including AI, predictive analytics, and clinical decision support.
• Suboptimal returns on investment are observed when measuring population health, operational efficiency, and quality.
• Challenges span from individual patient data management to governmental and provider-level implementation.

Conclusions:

• Informatics and big data hold significant potential for improving population health and healthcare service quality.
• Addressing the identified challenges is essential for realizing the full benefits of these technologies.
• This paper discusses these challenges in the context of achieving improved healthcare outcomes.